No jail for youth who mugged man at Dublin train station

A YOUTH, who was part of a gang that rained blows on a man during a vicious mugging at a Dublin train station, has been spared a custodial sentence.

The 16-year-old boy, who was sentenced to four months' probation, had pleaded guilty at the Dublin Children's Court to robbery at Coolmine train station during which the victim had his phone worth €250 stolen on January 9 last year.

Garda Janice O'Neill told court that during the robbery incident, the man had been travelling on a train and noticed a group of five males in his carriage, “acting suspiciously with scarves around their faces”.

He disembarked at Coolmine station where the boy and his accomplices punched him and demanded his phone, which was taken from him. He then sustained five punches from the gang which included one adult and Gda O'Neill said boy was involved.

Today the case resumed and a pre-sentence welfare report on the teen was furnished to Judge John O'Connor.

The youth, who was accompanied to court by a family member and his lawyer, was ordered to enter into a probation bond for four months.

The boy, was also given a two-year road ban, after he entered additional guilty pleas for unlawfully driving a motorcycle, which he crashed into a garda van following chase in February. He pleaded guilty to a public order incident in August.

Judge O'Connor had noted the Probation Service wanted to involve the boy, who has no prior criminal convictions, in “restorative justice” work.

The court also heard the boy, who cannot be named because he is a minor, is in work and was found by the Probation Service to be at a low risk of re-offending, however, the judge had said the boy face serious charges.

“It is a very serious case in which you could get a custodial sentence, it is very much in your interest that you get a good probation report,” the judge had warned the boy at an earlier stage.

As a condition of the order the boy must stay out of trouble and continue to co-operate with Probation Service efforts to divert him from re-offending. Breaching the terms would lead to the case being re-entered and the risk of a tougher sentence, including a term in a juvenile detention centre.